Display and mounting assembly



1966 H. s. THOMAS DISPLAY AND MOUNTING ASSEMBLY Filed Sept. 24, 1964 FIG. 1

FIG. 2

En: m4.

INVENTOR HOWARD S. THOMAS mfiw ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,280,972 DISPLAY AND MOUNTING ASSEMBLY Howard S. Thomas, 1600 East Ave., Rochester, N.Y. Filed Sept. 24, 1964, Ser. No. 398,890 Claims. (Cl. 206-78) This invention relates to a display and mounting assembly particularly adapted for buttons or shields having pin-type fastening devices such as are commonly used during election campaigns.

The collecting of various type of pin-type buttons has for many years been a hobby of a surprisingly large number of people. Campaign buttons are particularly sought after; some people saving all the campaign buttons issued during their lifetimes. Campaign buttons are traded between collectors like stamps and coins. Devices such as books are available for mount-ing and displaying stamps and coins. However, insofar as I am aware, no device has been available for mounting pin-type buttons such as campaign buttons.

Heretofore, as far as I am aware, election campaign buttons and similar buttons have been stored in bulk in boxes, or in drawers, or have been pinned to cloth. Pinning the buttons to a cloth background is not only of some danger to the user by reason of pricking his fingers on the pins which extend through the cloth but also there is little or nothing to hold the pins in position and the buttons frequently become dislodged.

An object of my invention is to provide a simple mounting and display card or board to form an assembly for mounting pin-type buttons or shields.

My invention further contemplates a display card or mounting board for the reception of pin-type buttons or shields wherein the possibility of the user pricking his fingers on the pins is minimized and in which accidental displacement of the pins is minimized by frictionally holding them on the display card.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be particularly set forth in the claims and will be apparent from the following description, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a face view of a mounting and display assembly with buttons of various sizes mounted thereon, the pins of the buttons being shown in dotted lines and portions of the display board being broken away more clearly to illustrate the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear view showing a corner of the display board and indicating in broken lines the lines upon which the cover sheet will be folded;

FIG. 4 is a view showing how the fabric or cloth face of the display board is folded over the back with the fastening tape of the most part removed; and

FIG. 5 is a view of the same corner of the display board showing in dotted lines the folds of the mounting fabric of the board and how the fabric is fastened and secured in place.

The mounting and display card of my invention comprises a back board 11, a pad 12, a cover sheet 13 and adhesive strips or tapes 14 for binding the parts together into an assembled whole for the reception of the pintype buttons, generally indicated by the numeral 16.

The board or card 11 may be of light thin wood but is preferably made of relatively stiff cardboard as such material is inexpensive and sufficiently rigid for my purposes. The corners of the board may be cut off or beveled, but as indicated at 15, the corners may come to a sharp point to avoid a cutting operation as the corners do not appear to become dog-cared in use of the board.

The pad 12 is preferably made of a plastic material 27 of the button.

3,280,972 Patented Oct. 25, 1966 "ice which is porous and resilient in character. The pad could be made of a pile fabric but for the purposes of frictionally and more firmly holding, engaging and envelopingthe pin of the button or shield, the pad is made of a sponge-like porous plastic material. The material is resilient and readily adapted to receive the pin and envelop it beneath the surface of its porous resilient body (see FIG. 2). The pad may have its corners cut off but this is not necessary. The pad is secured to the board 11 in any suitable manner. Such means may comprise an adhesive compatible with the material of the board and the material of the plastic pad. The display material or cloth 13 may be of any suitable material which will readily receive the point of the pin.

In assembling the board after trimming the corners of the cover 13, as shown at 17 (see FIG. 3), the cloth 13 from the position of FIG. 3 is first folded over at the corners along the fold lines 22 to position the corners as shown in FIG. 4. Thereafter the cloth is folded, as indicated in FIG. 4, at the sides to produce the lines 23. After this folding operation, adhesive tapes 14 are applied along both side edges with the tapes overlying the lines 23 and 17 as indicated at 25 in FIG. 5. Tapes 14 are then applied along the top and bottom of the back after the top and bottom edges of the cloth 13 has been folded over the back. The top and bottom tapes at the corners overlie the side tapes and the corner folds of the cloth. The particular way in which the cloth is folded is unimportant except insofar as it is desirable to produce a neat corner and one which will not pull loose. The overlapping of the tapes is important to produce a reinforced corner construction.

The pin 26 of the button is normally springlike in character and is accommodated in a circle under a lip When a button is inserted, as shown in FIGS. 1 and '2, the pin penetrates the fabric of the cover sheet 13 and is then lodged in the meshes of the resilient pad, as shown in FIG. 2, with its pointed end and adjacent part 28 lying between the pad and the cover sheet. In applying and removing the button, it will be apparent, from an examination of FIG. 2, that the user of the display board will not prick his finger on the pin as the pin is partly embedded in the pile-like meshes of the sponge-like pad and below the cover sheet. The pad has suflicient resiliency that it tends to grip frictionally the straight portion 28 of the pin to prevent accidental dislodgement of the pin and/ or button.

While I have shown and described the preferred form of my invention, it will be apparent that various modifications and changes may be made therein particularly in the form and relation of parts, without departing from the spirit of my invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A mounting and display board for buttons and the like of the type carried by an element having a pointed end projecting beyond an edge of the button comprising, in combination:

(a) a soft resilient pad;

(b) a backing sheet secured to one face of said pad;

(c) a cover sheet extending over the other face of the pad, over the combined edges of the pad and backing sheet, turned over said edges, and at least partly overlying the backing sheet; and

(d) means for securing the cover sheet to the back of the backing sheet, said buttons being applied to the board by inserting the pointed ends through the cover sheet.

2. A mounting and display board in accordance with claim 1 in which the pad is ad-hesively secured to the backing sheet.

3. A mounting and display board in accordance with claim 1 in which the pad has a pile-like surface for frictionally grasping portions of said elements and minimizing accidental displacement of the buttons.

4. A mounting and display board in accordance with claim 3 in which the cover sheet is loose with respect to the face of the pad Which it overlies and the pins lie partly imbedded in the pad between the pad and the cover sheet.

5. A mounting and display board in accordance with claim 1 in which the means for securing the cover sheet to the backing sheet are strips for material having one adhesive face overlying the turned over portions of the cover sheet.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Gittelshon 24-403 Koller 20675 Eisen et a1. 20675 Joslyn 206-75 Hatcher 20675 Cox et a1. 20645.34

10 THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM T. DIXSON, JR., Examiner. 

1. A MOUNTING AND DISPLAY BOARD FOR BUTTONS AND THE LIKE OF THE TYPE CARRIED BY AN ELEMENT HAVING A POINTED END PROJECTING BEYOND AN EDGE OF THE BUTTON COMPRISING IN COMBINATION: (A) A SOFT RESILIENT PAD; (B) A BACKING SHEET SECURED TO ONE FACE OF SAID PAD; (C) A COVER SHEET EXTENDING OVER THE OTHER FACE OF THE PAD, OVER THE COMBINED EDGES OF THE PAD AND BACK- 